The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-08-18
A BAG WITH HOLES.

aunt fraIu sat In the south WINDOW
of the kitchen, knitting. She had a
right to sit there, for she paid her
board punctually, having ''means,p as
the neighbors said.
What the Potters would have done
without her board to help them they
could not think-now they had it. Yet.
before Mrs. Potter's Uncle Ebenezer
died they had lived just as many other
poor people live. Uncle Ebenezer had
never helped his niece at all since he
gave her modest outfit and a hun
dred dollars in cash when she married
Rowley Potter, young fellow who
was getting good wages in the great
rifle factory at III.
Louisa was pretty, capable, bright
girl then; but that was twenty years
ago. Now she was a thin, sallow,
fretful woman. Potter still worked in
the rifle shop" as they called it. but
he had only 81 day more wages than
when he was married, and there were
four children. Lofty, 18 years DID,,
pretty, pert and vain, worked in a
bolt ''shop;" Idalla, girl of IA was a
leash girl" in Holmes & Harper's
great dry-goods store. Tom and Lofty
paid their board, ''Idy" clothed her
self, she could get bargains and rem
nants so cheap; when she should be
promoted into ''sales lady" she, too,
would pay like the others. The fourth
child, little Davy, was only 10; he went
to public school.
When Aunt Pratt was left a widow,
she made up her mind to sell the farm
and board somewhere; she had no
children. but she did have rheumatism
enough to tire her with its aches and
stiffness more than family of the
noisiest boys and girls could have tired
her. The farm was a good one, well
improved, the house and barns in
thorough repair, and there were six
cows and two horses, as well as plenty
of farming implements. She got $4,-
500 for the whole. The neighbors said
it was worth more; the buyer said it
was worth less; SO shrewd Aunt Pratt
considered the price fair.
Then there was 81 800 in the Dalton
Bank, the slow accumulation. of butter
money, egg money, the sale of poultry
and cal YES: $4,000 in all, and every
cent of it her own. Squire Hart, of
Dalton, who was executor of the will.
invested the money in safe ways at 6
per cent and Mrs. Pratt began to look
about her for n home. She knew that
Louisa Potter had felt hurt about her
Uncle Pratt's will; he only left to her
her grandmother mahogany furniture
and the savings bank book in which
be had deposited the profits made out
of the Friesland hens and the white
heifer calf she had left in his hands
when she married-a sum amounting
to 800 now.
But Louisa and her husband had ex-
pected more, and Mrs. Pratt was a
just woman, capable of understanding
other peoples feelings; SO she did not
wonder. After much thought, and
without any suggestion from them,
she proposed to come into H. and
board with Louisa. So they gave up
to her Lotty's front bed room, and put
Lofty in with Ida; and as they cooked
and ate in the same room where they
sat at evening, Aunt Pratt's rocker,
her foot-stool, her small round table
| and her work-basket were established
in the sunny south window, where she
| could Took down into the street and up
into the sky; for this tenement was on
| a corner, and the Potters had the third
| story fiat.
| 1t was a great change for Aunt
| Pratt, but she was a woman brought
up in the old New England fashion, to
do what she perceived to be duty,
however unpleasant and painful, with
out shrinking or complaint; and she
had made up her mind that it was her
duty to help the Potters.
| She missed the fresh air of the farm,
the quiet of her own house, the new
milk, the sweet butter, the good bread;
but she said nothing as she sat, day
after day, in her window knitting or
mending, her big bible open on the
stand, and her thoughts very busy with
the things around her, as well as with
the things that are above. For Aunt
Pratt had made a resolution to leave
her money in the way it would do her
relatives the most good, and she must
study them and their customs before
she could discover what that way was.
She soon found out that they were al
ways in debt. Potter had good wages.
Lofty and Tom were off his hands, Ida
had only her board given her, and
Davy was inheritor to Toms old
\ clothes and his fathers, too. 1t seemed
to Aunt Pratt that there must be leak
somewhere that she did not discover
at once.
She was reading her bible of course,
and one day came upon verse in the
phophecy of Haggai that seemed to ex-
plain the situation to her, and opened
her eyes. The next day Lofty came in
shivering; she had caught severe cold
and huddled over the cook-stove
wrapped in an old shawl, coughed and
sighed and scolded all day, till she was
too hoarse to speak.
Have you got on your winter fan.
nels?" asked Aunt Pratt, for it was now
November.
"Flannelsp 1 guess not. haven't
got any,"
"Why, Lotty!'
"Well, poor folks can't have every.
thing. I'd got to have winter suit
and there was such lovely one at the
Boston store; satin petticoat, with
drapery of camels Naturalization,
mean, but awfully pretty-and rea
gilt buttons; only 500. Itell you, Aunt
Pratt, it was swell and no mistake
but couldn't afford soft fiannels aftel
that"
lis it a thick dressP" queried Aun
Pratt.
mo, not so very; not so thick as thi
: amt cold-blooded."
e '.And your shoes, are they thick?"
"Oh, they're just cheap boots; thicl
soles do cost so. My best ones ar,
French kid with lovely high heels
They can't have thick soles."
And have you got a warm petit
= coat?"
''Mercy! 1 don't want to be al
bumped up with things. I've got al
old felt skirt and striped cambric fol
every day, and four white ones
trimmed with edgin9."
Aunt Pratt shook her head.
IA hole in the bag! A hole in tn
. bagw she said sadly.
"Why, what upon"-but a fit o
, coughing stopped the words and lef
Dotty's chest SO sore she did not finisl
her question.
She was so ill that night doctor
was sent fora young man round tn,
] corner, just beginning practice, there
fore cheaper than man of experience
He at once proceeded to blister his pa
r tient and give her antimony. Low de